Debt recovery process

Hampshire County Council has a clear debt recovery process where people have either not paid or fallen behind with invoice payments for their care and support arranged by the County Council.

If you know that there will be delays in payment of your care and support invoice, you should make the County Council aware as soon as possible.

There are payment options available for people who are finding payments difficult. You can find out more about these by visiting Invoice payment, enquiries and disputes.

Debt process

If you have not paid your invoice after 15 days of it being issued

You will be sent an overdue invoice.

If you have not paid your invoice after 29 days of it being issued

If you have not paid the amount or agreed a repayment plan, you will be sent a first reminder letter. You will be given a chance to pay, or agree an arrangement, by a certain date.

If you have not paid your invoice after 45 days of it being issued

If you have not paid the amount or agreed a repayment plan, you will be send a second reminder letter. You will once again be given a chance to pay, or agree an arrangement, by a certain date.

If you still haven’t paid your invoice after the final reminder, the County Council will try to make contact by telephone on at least two occasions to discuss a repayment plan.

If there is failure to pay or make contact, then you will be sent a letter requesting contact.

Debt review

If all options have been exhausted and the debt remains unpaid, the Hampshire County Council Debt Recovery team (in conjunction with Adult Health and Care Paying for Care team) will review the recommendations that are based on debt management principles in line with the Court and Care Act debt recovery guidance.

This could include credit checks and further discussions with service areas.

If we are satisfied the amount is still outstanding and all other avenues to remove the debt have been exhausted, we will recommend to authorise action to be taken to recover the amount of debt to the Deputy Director of Adults’ Health and Care.

Legal action

If the debt remains unpaid and the recommendation is to recover the debt, a final letter will be sent to you to advise that the matter has been referred to the Legal team. This will result in a pre action protocol letter being sent. Failure to respond to this letter within 30 days may result in court action.

Under exceptional circumstances and if applicable, the County Council may consider taking possession of the property and forcing its sale to discharge the debt.

Debt recovery of deceased individuals

The County Council will suspend debt recovery on accounts where notification is received from the individual’s representative(s) that Grant of Probate/Letters of administration are being applied for.

If that is not the case, we will notify the individuals’ representative(s) of the balance due from the estate in a timely manner.

This will be sent in writing by either email or post and within the six year statue limitation period under the Care Act.

Deferred Payment Agreements (DPA)

Upon date of death or sale of the property, an invoice is raised for the cost of the deferred amount of care to that date.

Interest

Interest is calculated once the County Council has been informed of the property sale date or the individual/representative has requested a settlement figure.

Interest continues to be applied to the deferred debt and any associated deferred administration charges until the settlement figure is requested and arrangements are made to pay both the deferred care charges and associated interest/administration charges. Once paid, the legal charge is removed.

If the DPA has ended upon the death of the individual receiving care, the representative(s) the estate has 90 days from date of death in which to repay the deferred amount due. After the 90 day period, the County Council will continue to apply interest based upon the central government set rates for up to 364 days after death (to provide sufficient time for the estate to gain probate where required).

We will always seek to resolve issues and take account of individual circumstances. However, we may consider applying a higher rate of interest to the deferred charges and proceeding to county court in order to recover the debt owed if:

• the debt remains unpaid
• the County Council concludes that the individual’s representative(s) is not taking active steps to repay the debt
• all other reasonable avenues have been exhausted

Details of applicable interest rates can be found on the DPA page and are also included in the Annual Statement, sent twice a year to people who have a DPA.